Two teams headed in opposite directions continued their routes today; as the Penguins won their 8th straight and the Rangers lost their third straight. The Rangers mediocrity continued as the Pens shut us out for the second time this year, final score 3-0. The Rangers put 23 shots on goal and the trio of Gaborik, Richards and Nash accounted for eight. To no avail. The Rangers have scored two goals in the last three road games.
Is there no end to this misery? The coach says the team has to tighten up down low, but we can't score goals. We have high powered offensive players, who suddenly have become mushes. We are more concerned with blocking shots than putting quality shots on goal. Also, there is no doubt that we miss Marc Staal. Besides his great defense, he adds to the offense and he is a leader.
Unless their is a drastic change in attitude by the coach, this team is headed for oblivion. However, I can't see any change. It's going to be more of the same. Tighten up the D. Keep mixing and changing the lines. Overplay your key players. Fourth line gets minuscule ice time. Finally, keep berating the press, and indirectly the fans, at the so called press conferences.
After all, the omnipotent coach is never wrong, is always right. Don't believe it? Just ask him. Ask him and stay way back. The rise was spectacular. The fall could be deafening!
A quote from the great and powerful idiot: “You don’t teach that(offense), that’s a skill and we can manufacture goals and we try to do that as far as point shots and men in front and all that stuff. I am not going to have a lot of conversations regarding that."
Yeah no kidding you don't teach that because you are completely clueless on how to go about that. He doesn't know the first thing about offense he only knows one way to coach, his way. He is killing us now, we are suffocating under his idiocracy and they guys cannot even muster up the energy to play. Mentally they are exhausted and they don't even know why they can't get it done. It's really sad to see such a lackluster team drowning in their own confusion.
I don't even know how this guy has a job, Sullivan coaches the D, Sullivan draws up the in game plays, he doesn't teach offense, he doesn't talk to goalies...what does he do exactly? Again after the game he says his infamous quote, we have to stick with it. Stick with what? Losing? This guy has to go, doesn't he. I'm in hell until he is fired, hell.
Looking like it will be from 1st in Conference to worst in the east this year...
Another year of Lundqvist's prime is being wasted...
Yes, what exactly does Torts do? Oh yes, he saves himself for the press conferences.
Yes, poor Henrik ...he deserves better
Andy, I must say that if EJ Hradek stepped in and said "well, maybe their head coach needs to step up his game!' - then we may be onto something. Don't get me wrong, EJ's opinion isn't exactly the first opinion I seek out but it says something to me when he actually gives an opinion. He's a nice guy but he walks the line. He usually never chooses a side one way or the other. Very passive.
I don't like the idea of trading Gaby at all. Dan Boyle is a player I like but not for Gaborik and a struggling player like Clowe - Torts is the last thing he needs. Coach doesn't know what to do with a roster full of struggling talent so adding one more won't help. Jeanine and I also like Scott Gomez a lot and we met his family several times. His dad Carlos bought us coffee once before a game and we talked hockey with him for a couple of hours. He told us funny stories about Scott growing up and we told him all kinds of stories about the Rangers. It was great. So needless to say we have a soft spot for Scotty and we always wish the best for him. Another guy the Sharks have now is Larry Robinson. I think he is an awesome coach. So smart, knows the game so well and he truly understands both offense and defense. I think its such a shame he doesn't want to be a head coach because he is so damn good at it. When he coached the Devils, that team was amazing. They had such a great group of guys and his system was perfect for them. They executed like clockwork. The Rangers group now is sort of built similar to that group and would flourish under a guy like that especially now that we have our power forward in Nash. We have a good collection of forwards, they need guidance and direction. They need roles to be identified. The scorers have to be allowed to create and the role players like Powe, Pyatt and Halpren need to be role players. They need to have ice time to play those roles and also to give the top liners a rest. Poor management is wearing them out. All topics we talk about ad nauseam here.
Its obvious this team is done with this coach and all we have to do is wait for Sather to read the handwriting on the wall and do something about it. I know that seems like an impossibility because we have all lost faith, with good reason, in Sather but mark my words, if Sather feels Torts must go in order to save his own inadequate butt, you can bet he will do just that. Business is business. I learned something last season about Sather, put some pressure on him an he will fold. Whoever imagined that some "we want Avery" chants and fan phone calls would prompt Sather to bring Sean back against the will of the coach last season? Not me. I know if the fans voice their displeasure loud enough Sather can be had. Tort-or-ella
Jen,
Yeah i was surprised when EJ said that about tort-o-rella as well, and i agree he is mostly a "yes" man.
So Hopefully that is telling of what's to come..
Larry Robinson is amazing. Loved him with NJ, especially how he crafted and worked so well with Gomez, even as a ranger fan you had to admit he was perfect for NJ. I personally wish he would take over for Todd Mclellan in SJ, but would also love to see him take over for coach moron. That would be spectacular for our group of rangers, like you said. I guarantee he'd get them going quick.
I also do not like the idea of trading Gabby. Tortorella obviously had it out for him since the beginning, like Avery, and is quicker to whip him then any other ranger (though Richie and others are pretty close). Gabby would thrive strongly under a new coach in NY. It's him or torts, we know that. Hope fully it's torts! The sharks don't need a player like gabby, they need depth players just like the rangers. Clowe and Boyle are not nearly enough for Marian.
Get that "Tort-o-rella" chant going at the garden!!
http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/rangers/at_loss_5DOM73rxwd2ZPSBLMtuJiP
Perfect summary of Tortorella's failures with gabby and in general. Love the Avery mention. He's right, some guys just will not be given a fair shake by torts. Period.
That's how he rolls. And that's certainly not how to coach and it's certainly not how to live.
Absolutely Andy, this is how this coach operates, he decides he doesn't like someone for whatever warped reason he imagines in that pea brain of his and then he sabotages them. You can go as far back as Voros, he talked about Aaron like he was some talentless dumb ass right off and he was gone. It took him much longer than he planned to get rid of Sean but he unfortunately got his way there. He hated Wolski because he took too long to come back from injuries, "can't get this guy out of the tub", he's gone. He didn't like Frolov right away, we got him to play with Gaby but that only lasted about 2 weeks. Then he played him with checking forwards and eventually he was gone. He didn't like Zuc because he was too small, he's gone. He didn't like Del Zotto for a while because he acted like a 20 year old and went out on too many dates, he sent him to the minors, brought him back and decided he was acceptable now. A friend of mine travels to Ranger road games and sits behind the bench, he told me last year Dubi and Torts fought, which I already knew they were butting heads, but he confirmed things for me, where is Dubi? Columbus of course. He never liked Gaby but he couldn't kick him around as easily because it would be so obvious and he's a 40 goal scorer which he desperately needed at the time. Now he's thinking Nash is a power house and this is the time to get rid of Gaby so he switches his wing to limit his success, eventually planting the seeds of him not producing, which leads to trade talks and well, well, here we are. This guy is a master manipulater and he fools many people. I have zero respect for this guy.
Well said Jeanine.
I'm so sick of him too. People can say what they want about Larry Brooks but he's always been a guy who gets the story. He's not worried about being PC that's for sure. Ever since I was a kid, he has always been a writer who tells it like it is and he really keeps us in the know. He is also very careful about the timing of his articles so you can bet where there is smoke there is fire. Like us, he knows this coach has been operating this way for years but there hasn't been a right time to write about it until now. I take it as a good sign that disagreeable may finally get what he deserves. He certainly doesn't deserve the honor of coaching our team thats for sure and it makes me sick that he has that. As of now anyway. He's a destructive person and now is the time to get rid of him in order to preserve all the good building the Rangers have done. I'm so glad that Brooks brought up Sean Avery. The subject is "taboo" among some circles of Ranger fans so it took guts to add him in. He deserves a mention especially since he is one player the Rangers miss without doubt. Also what he said about Kreider was perfect. I hope we don't call him up until Torts is gone. Enough is enough already. People ask me all the time who I would replace Torts with as if there is no one out there who could possibly replace him. I jokingly reply, "me of course." But in seriousness if they fire him now, midseason, I say put Keenan in as interim and see what he does. He would turn this team around. We would play with authority, have an aggressive PP and PK and Gaby would be a new man. He can also get Del Zotto out of the so called "development" phase. I know Keenan could work wonders with a talent like that. Yup, thats right, you heard me. A lot of people love to criticize MDZ but he has so much potential this coach has no idea what to do with. Of course my dream is to have Messier coach but he want to be GM. Pundit mentioned it and I think I commented on here before. I always say the 1994 connection. If Mess really HAS to be the GM then fine. I say he talks Mike Richter into becoming Head Coach- Mike is a brilliant hockey mind - and Leetch can run the special teams, and Adam Graves can work with the young players. Two assistant coaches on the bench. What a concept. The four of them would be terrific. When I allow myself to dream about the kind of hockey this team could and should be playing it depresses the hell out of me. How did we get stuck with such idiots in management?
Again the sisters have awesome comments! The Jen and Jeanine connection! You ladies rule.
Jeanine I'm glad you brought up my boy AV! Voros was a hard working, 100% effort every night. Sure he had some issues, but he, like so many others you mentioned, was belittled by coach immediately and banished. AV came back to play with his buddy Aves in Connecticut. He, like Sean, put aside Torts' BS because he loved the rangers and the fans. If only coach had half the heart AV and Aves had...
Jen,
I like the Keenan idea. But the 94' connection like you and pundit mentioned would be so amazing. You know that the 4 of them would just naturally have it. They were elite players that certainly know what it takes to win, and they know how to push themselves and players to reach their absolute best game. And they do it positively!! Maybe it's a pipe dream, but as i watch this game at 1-0 right now i can't help but think of the possibilities..